Many refrigerators contain ice making compartments located within either a freezer or refrigerator compartment. Typically, the ice making compartments include at least an ice mold, a water supply, and an ice storage compartment or container. Water is added to the ice mold from the water supply. A cold air source provides cold air that is passed over the water and the ice mold to freeze the water, forming ice cubes. Typically, a heat exchanger cools the air. A coolant may be used in the heat exchanger. After warming, the coolant must pass through a condenser and evaporator to re-cool to be able to be used to cool down new air in the ice making compartment.
The frozen cubes are then dislodged from the molds and transferred into the storage compartment. Because of the proximity of the storage compartment to the ice mold, the cold air that is used to freeze the water in the mold is also used to maintain the temperature of the storage compartment to below freezing. The cold air simply passes over the ice mold and continues through an opening in the storage compartment to the container of the frozen, dislodged ice. Using cooled air to form the ice and to keep the frozen ice from melting consumes a rather large amount of energy, which is costly to the refrigerator owner. The condenser and evaporator require energy to re-cool the coolant used to cool the ice making compartment, and a high volume of air must be cooled to be able to both freeze the ice and keep the temperature of the storage compartment below freezing.
To reduce the amount of electricity a refrigerator uses, other methods of freezing ice have been utilized. One such method involves direct contact cooling to form ice. The ice mold is placed in direct contact with a portion of the coolant loop so that the coolant moving through the loop absorbs the heat from the water in the mold to form ice cubes. As the coolant is able to absorb more heat than cooled air passing over the ice molds, less energy is needed. Therefore the cost of forming ice in the mold is reduced.
However, because the icemaker does not include the use of cooled air to form ice, no cooled air is available to maintain the temperature of the ice storage compartment below freezing. The formed ice is exposed to above freezing temperatures, which can cause the ice to melt, negating the ice making process. Efforts have been made to include portions of the coolant loop within the ice storage compartment, but this has not been practical when the storage compartment is part of a door of the refrigerator.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an apparatus and method of producing and directing cooled air to the ice storage compartment of a refrigerator utilizing a direct contact ice making process. There is also a need in the art for a method of producing cooled air for maintaining the temperature of an ice storage compartment that is cost efficient.